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WILKES-BARRE - The suspended dean of students at Coughlin High School was hit Monday with charges alleging he had an ongoing sexual relationship with a teenage student.

Police allege Stephen Stahl, a 47-year-old teacher and wrestling coach, showered a 16-year-old girl with gifts during a lengthy relationship in which they had sex in classroom closets and cheap motels.

Stahl, who is suspended without pay, is facing a misdemeanor count of corrupting a minor. He declined to comment as he left court, free on $5,000 unsecured bail.

Police say they learned of the allegations Dec. 31, when the victim told investigators she had been in a sexual relationship with a teacher.

During a subsequent interview, the girl told police that she started as a freshman at Coughlin in 2002, and that during her sophomore year Stahl began talking to her in the hallways, sometimes commenting on her appearance, according to a police affidavit.

The girl did not have Stahl as a teacher, but he began asking her to meet him in his basement classroom during eighth period, when most students would have gone for the day, police said.

In March 2004, the girl gave Stahl her cellphone number at his request, and he began calling her after school, she told police. That same month, she accepted his invitation to go to his classroom, and they had sex inside a closet, according to the affidavit.

They had sex in the closet on other occasions, as well as in a photography darkroom, she told police.

Starting that summer, Stahl would call the girl and ask her to meet him in a park, police said. He would pick her up and drive her to two motels - the Red Roof Inn and Fox Ridge Inn - where they had sex, she told police.

After the girl got her driver's license in the summer of 2004, she would drive to the Hunlock Creek Post Office, where Stahl would pick her up and drive her to his home at 182 Sorbertown Hill Road for sexual encounters, according to the affidavit.

During the relationship, Stahl gave the girl a purse, perfume and blueberry muffins that he brought to school, police said.

The girl told police she stopped seeing Stahl sometime before November 2005, and that Stahl "kept trying to get back with her," the affidavit says. In November 2005, the girl told Stahl the relationship had to stop, police said.

Investigators interviewed two other former Coughlin students who knew the girl, and they reported she had told them about her relationship when it was happening, the affidavit says.

Stahl turned himself in on Monday morning after police filed the charge of corrupting a minor against him. Magisterial District Judge Rick Cronauer arraigned Stahl and released him on $5,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing was set for 9 a.m. Feb. 27.

His attorney, Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., said after the hearing that he could not comment on the case, adding that he had just gotten a copy of the complaint againt Stahl.

"I haven't had a chance to study it yet, and really under those circumstances I'm not in a position to say anything," Olszewski said.

Stahl, who started working as Coughlin's dean of students Jan. 2 at an annual salary of $77,582, was suspended without pay Friday after administrators learned the criminal charge was pending.

A district employee since 1995, Stahl planned to step down as wrestling coach after this season, his seventh in charge of the team.

He has had several run-ins with the law in the past, twice being convicted of driving drunk and being convicted of harassing a fellow teacher in 2007.

In that case, Stahl admitted to harassing a district teacher who ended a romantic relationship with him, with repeated calls to her cellphone.

The state issued Stahl certification to teach industrial arts and technology in March 2001 and certification to an education administrator in November, records show. The dean of students is an administrative job at each school in the district and is charge of student discipline, school district Solicitor Raymond Wendolowski said.

Michael P. Buffer, staff writer, contributed to this report.

jhalpin@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

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